The Niagara News is the community newspaper of Niagara College located in Welland and Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada. It is created and produced by the students of the Niagara College Journalism program.

Fighting through winter blues

By JESSICA HENDRIKSStaff WriterMany people experience tiredness, energy loss, and sadness in the winter, likely because it gets darker earlier and days feel longer. This is known as “winter blues”: a mild form of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).Two to three per cent of Canadians will struggle with SAD. Fifteen per cent will experience a milder form – such as winter blues or February blahs.According to the Canadian Mental Health Association, “Seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, is a kind of depression that appears at certain times of the year. It usually begins in the fall when the days get shorter and lasts through the winter.”Mood Disorders of Ontario lists the symptoms as: oversleeping, low energy, intense craving of carbohydrates, weight gain, withdrawal from social contacts and depression.Though SAD is a form of a clinical depression, in order to be diagnosed, depression must occur only in certain seasons. Otherwise you might just be looking at depression.Racheal N., who prefers not to reveal her surname, has been struggling with SAD for 10 years, saying she relies on her husband to do her chores because she has no energy when she gets home from work.“My energy is just completely sapped.”She doesn’t like to leave the house and needs encouragement to go out.“Most of my friends now know I have SAD, so they are pretty good about keeping in touch and organizing activities to get me out of the house.”Much of her life is structured to make it easier to manage her SAD.“I am in a job that allows me to work ahead of myself in the summer to make life easier in the winter. I got involved with sled dog racing so I could exercise my dogs in winter without having to walk, and it keeps me social too.”Jessika Rimar, a business administration student at Niagara College, says, “I try not to let my SAD affect my family and social life, although sometimes I isolate myself alone and push my family and friends away. I often lose friends due to this.”SAD makes it difficult to do a lot of things. sometimes, the most difficult part of my day is simply trying to get out of bed. I often lose my appetite as well and find it difficult to engage in activities that would normally make me very happy.”A woman, who preferred not to reveal her name, who has struggled with SAD most of her life, says she notices the change in light in mid-August, then her mood changes.She says that if she doesn’t treat it, it completely stops her socially. She has lost jobs and relationships.“I don’t want to get out of the house. It makes me grumpy, short-tempered, unorganized, in short, a mess. This is the worse case scenario. If I’m treating, it can become just a nuisance I live with.”“Treatment is key,” she adds.Light therapy is known to be the best treatment for SAD. It involves sitting near an intense artificial light for about a half an hour a day. Talk to your doctor before doing this. It helps to replace the loss of sunlight, which is one of the believed things causing SAD. Sixty to 80 per cent of people with SAD find huge relief from light therapy.Medication, counselling, healthy lifestyles and socializing are all helpful.